And the Wonders Never Cease
by ClarkeeCollins
Summary: Clarke expected to have to drag Jasper into his first day at school. She expected him to cry and refuse to go inside. That is not what she got. Instead she ended up going to breakfast with a charming librarian who was a single parent like her. So begins a budding new romance that involves playdates, birthday parties, PTA meetings, and way more spaghettios than is probably safe.


_This is a kind of adaptation/expansion of my short kid fic modern au I wrote in my collection of Flarke modern AUs. Someone asked for more of that universe, and instead of writing another short story about it I decided I wanted to write a longer story. I am not sure how long this is going to be, but it will be at least a few chapters :-D _

_But there are a few notes I want to go over first._

_1)__This is flarke. If you do not like Flarke then don't read the story._

_2)__Clarke and Finn are both single parents. This will be covered in the story but in order to avoid confusion I am going to explain a little about it now. _

_a.__Jasper is Clarke's son_

_b.__And Monty is Finn's son (this is a little different than my short story, since Finn had a daughter there.)_

_c.__Monty is adopted though, like Monty's actor was. _

_d.__Finn's wife died (probably really close after they adopted Monty) and Jasper's dad isn't in his life at all. He just sends a check every month._

_3)__I don't have everything planned out. So if there is something that you would really like to see let me know and I'll try to work it in. I know a few things I want to happen. But I'm not sure on everything yet._

_4)__I think that covers everything, if there is anything that confuses you about that then don't hesitate to ask me._

P-

"Okay, Jasper, do you want to put your crayons in your brand new backpack first or do you want to put the tissues in there?" Clarke asked her five-year-old son.

She's had to go through each item on his list like this, or else nothing would have gotten done. For whatever reason, her son will do whatever you ask as long as he has a choice in the matter, sometimes she has more than one thing that needs doing, and other times she has to give him a choice of what she wants him to do and something he will definitely not want to do in order to get what she needs done, done.

Instead of answering her he grabbed the box of crayons and clumsily put them in the backpack, upside down and open.

Everything she read online had said that it would be a better adjustment if Jasper helped prepare for his first day of school but really this was probably just making more work for her. Since she would have to repack everything after Jasper has gone to bed.

Clarke was expecting tears tomorrow, so she was trying to minimize the damage the best she could. It wasn't like Jasper had never been away from her. But it was just him, her and his goldfish at home and at the hospital daycare someone could just page her if he needed something.

But that wouldn't be the case at school. The school she was sending him to (and paying way more than anyone has a right to charge) was on the opposite side of town than the Ark Memorial Hospital which was a far cry from the opposite side of the hospital.

Somehow, they got everything to fit in the backpack, but Clarke doesn't even want to think about the state of his Adventure Time folders or Lego Movie notebook.

She decided that they would do one final 'talk' about what the next day would have in store for him.

"Alright, Jasper, lets have a quick talk before we get you all ready for bed," Clarke sat down on the couch and motioned for Jasper to sit down on her lap.

"I'm not in trouble, am I, Mommy? I swear I didn't do anything, it was probably bubbles," the words left his mouth in a quick jumble of sounds and syllables. And Clarke mentally took a note to find out what he broke. Bubbles was their goldfish.

"No, Hun, I just wanted to talk about school a bit more, you haven't really told me what you think about it," Clarke said.

"Oh, come on, mommy. We've talked about his like, a billion times," he whined, "I told you already that I think I'm ready. Bellamy at daycare went to school last year and he got to take care of the class pet. Do you think my class will have a pet? Bellamy said that they had a snake. Snakes are cool right?"

Clarke smiled at her son's rambling, "I don't know if you'll have a class pet. But you know that I won't be able to come visit during my breaks. You'll have to wait all day until after school to see me again. I'm going to drop you off in the morning and you will have to go and listen to Miss. Reyes, you remember Miss Reyes right? We met her last week."

Jasper nodded, and yawned, it was fast approaching his bedtime, today had been a pretty busy day since you had to do most of your school shopping this morning, "Yep, I remember Miss. Reyes, she looked really nice. I think I'll be okay. Especially if we have a snake."

Apparently this was a lost cause. Clarke was sure that it would all sink in tomorrow though, when she actually was going to leave. Jasper probably would get upset then. The first time she had to leave him at the hospital daycare after her maternity leave he had cried for hours. Granted he was a baby then. But still.

Clarke had Jasper go into his room to put on his pajamas while she poured him some milk. Then they brushed his teeth and she supervised as he put some flakes into the goldfish bowl.

Jasper actually did a pretty good job of it now, a month after they got the fish. The first time she had him feed it by himself half the container of flakes had went into the water.

She then walked with him into his room and tucked him in.

"Okay, Jasper, what are we reading tonight?" Clarke asked as she walked over and grabbed a book off the shelf, already knowing his answer.

"Wild Things," he yawned.

Clarke sat on the bed, and opened the book so they both could see the pages. Just as Max was saying "Be still!" Jasper was falling asleep.

The morning was a bit trying. Jasper did not like the tie on his school uniform, and they were out of Lucky Charms.

"But, Mom," He said, "I wanted breakfast marshmallows, not Fruit Loops."

Clarke sighed, "I'll get more Lucky Charms tonight, after work. But for now we have to go with Fruit Loops."

Jasper pouted, but started spooning Fruit Loops into his mouth anyway. Before Jasper Clarke didn't know that someone could eat cereal so dejectedly.

He finished his Fruit Loops and by some miracle only got a few spots of milk on his shirt. Clarke helped Jasper brush his teeth. She grabbed her purse and his backpack and helped him into his booster seat in the back of her car.

"So, Jasper," Clarke said, looking at him through the rear view mirror for a second, "You are going to be on your best behavior right?"

"Yes, mommy," Jasper said, pulling at his tie slightly. Whose idea it was to put five year olds in ties Clarke didn't know. He looked cute, but even though it was velcro it was going to bother him all day.

"That means that you have to share. And be nice to everyone. Plus try to make some friends okay?" Clarke told him. "I have all the other parent's number's on a list your teacher gave me. So when you make some new friends we can set up a play date or something on one of my days off."

Jasper nodded, "Everyone is going to be nice, right? Like the kids at daycare?"

"Yes, I'm sure that everyone will be nice. And if another kid is misbehaving, please, please, please do not join in. Remember what happened when you joined Bellamy's game of hide and sneak last month right?"

"Yeah, I got grounded. No DS for two weeks," Jasper frowned.

"So we don't want something like that to happen again, right?" Clarke asked.

"Right."

They pulled into the school parking lot. The school looked kind of imposing from the outside, a big brick building, if it wasn't for the large playground and laughing children outside Clarke would think it looked more like a prison than a elementary school. She had been inside it the week before for Meet the Teachers night and it was very colorful and happy looking on the inside.

Clarke spotted Miss Reyes standing near the gate to the playground with a few other teachers and after Clarke helped Jasper from his buckle she held his hand and walked over to the teacher.

"Hello, Jasper Griffin, right?" Miss Reyes asked, smiling down at Jasper.

"Yes," Clarke replied.

"And you're his mother? Clarke?" Miss Reyes asked.

Clarke nodded again. Miss Reyes stuck her hand out for Clarke to shake, "I'm Raven Reyes, I am very excited to have Jasper in my class this year, he looks like a very bright boy. We're letting the kids play a bit before we go in to get their minds off being at school so you can say your good byes for the day and let him be off with the other kids."

"Thank you, Raven." Clarke said. And lead the very antsy Jasper a bit away.

"Alright, are you ready Jasper?" Clarke asked her son.

"Yeah, mommy. Can I go now?" Jasper was obviously ready to play on the playground with the other kids.

"Can I have a hug first?" Clarke asked, not really expecting that it was her that she should have been preparing for this moment all along.

Jasper sighed before giving Clarke a quick hug before he was off. "Bye, Mom!" he called as he ran past the teachers and onto the jungle gym.

Clarke's eyes watered slightly. But she was not crying. The outside was just upsetting her allergies that were all.

The man next to her actually didn't look like he was doing much better than she was. His eyes seemed bit misty as he watched a boy Jasper's age swing across the monkey bars.

"You didn't send him to preschool did you?" the man asked, turning slightly to talk to Clarke.

"What?" Clarke was surprised, she didn't know what he meant for sure, "No he didn't, there is daycare at the hospital I work at."

"You see, what they don't tell us is that preschool actually has nothing to do with giving your kid an edge over the other kids. Really it's to prepare the parents for the separation anxiety. Preschool is half day. It kind of helps ease the parents into a spending time away from their kids." the man explained, grinning, "I'm Finn Collins, by the way."

Finn stuck his hand out for her to shake, "Clarke Griffin," she said as she gave him her hand. The handshake lasted a few seconds too long to feel strictly platonic and Clarke couldn't help to blush slightly.

She didn't date, it was a rule that she had come up with in order to be the best single mom a little boy could have, but she felt charmed by this Finn Collins. So she let herself return his smile.

"So, if you are not too busy preforming life saving surgeries or whatever it is that you do at the hospital of yours would you like to go get breakfast with me?" Finn asked a smile still on his lips, I can give you a few pointers on how to overcome empty nest syndrome."

"Right now?" Clarke asked glancing at the time on her phone. She had told her interns that she would be coming in an hour and a half later for work this morning. She had wanted to schedule in as much time for tears as possible. And as it was now if she were to leave she would probably show up ten minutes early.

Finn's smile returned full force, he had a very nice smile, "Well yeah, or tomorrow. Or even every day for the rest of our lives, I'm not really that picky."

Clarke took about three seconds to debate the pros and cons. And decided that spending some time with a grown-up who she didn't see everyday at work couldn't hurt, "You know what, why not. There is a really nice diner like a block that way," she motioned to the left, "They serve the best waffles."

"I love waffles," Finn told her, "Now, tell me all about your son. I have to make a plan on the best way to get him and Monty to be best friends."

Breakfast with Finn was actually really nice, they got all the drama stuff out of the way. Finn told her about how that his wife had died in a car accident four years ago just weeks after adopting one-year-old Monty. And how glad he was that he had to decide to keep Monty even though everyone he knew told him that no one would blame him for sending him back. And Clarke told Finn about how her long term boyfriend split town after finding out that she was pregnant and now the only contact that he has with Jasper is a monthly check that Clarke just deposits in Jasper's college fund.

But after all the heavy stuff was out of the way they were actually able to enjoy themselves. And Clarke actually wished that she didn't have to go into work so they could stay and talk longer. But the planned for Finn and Monty to come over for dinner later in the week so she and Finn could talk more and so Jasper and Monty could play.

Clarke actually ended up being five minutes late.

"So how did he do?" Clarke's best friend and co-worker Anya asked when Clarke passed by the ER desk.

Clarke and Anya were both trauma surgeons, but actually spent a lot of time just working in the Emergency Room since nothing too serious happened in their city.

Clarke sighed, "It was like he wanted to go to school or something. What kid wants to go to school? He barely even hugged me."

Anya laughed, "So what took you so long to get into work? Usually you are here way before everyone else checking in on your post ops and everything?"

Clarke blushed slightly; "I actually went to breakfast with one of the dads."

Anya raised her eyebrows, looking at Clarke scandalized, "You did what?"

"Don't say it like that! It was just breakfast, it was his son's first day too, they are in the same class and since we both had time before we had to get to work we went to breakfast to talk," Clarke explained.

"You see, but since you are saying it was 'just breakfast' that means you think that it has the potential of becoming more. What happened to being too focused on Jasper for dating? You know that Doctor Murphy has been trying to get your attention for years."

"Murphy hates children, you know that. And Finn's first priority is his son too. So he get's it, you know. And we are just friends. It's not we've started some kind of illicit affair or something." Clarke told her.

"So when are you seeing him again," Anya asked teasing.

Clarke frowned, knowing her answer was just going to give Anya more fodder for her teasing, "Thursday," she said reluctantly.

"Oh my gosh, you are totally into this guy," Anya laughed.

Clarke's pager went off saving her from having to reply, "Duty calls," Clarke told, not sorry at all.

"Don't think this is the end of this! I am going to get all the details out of you," Anya called after her.

Luckily for Clarke the rest of the morning and early afternoon was pretty busy. Clarke a car accident victim came in and Clarke had to assist in surgery for that and then there was a seemingly endless stream of patients in the ER.

Not so luckily for Clarke she was busy when Jasper got off the after school bus at the hospital. She had dropped him off this morning but for the most part Jasper will be getting on the bus at their house in the morning and then getting off the bus at the hospital after school. So she didn't get to go talk to him until nearly an hour after he was there.

When she finally got a chance to get away it was actually time for her to get home, she had a short shift today, thank goodness.

When she went to sign Jasper out of daycare he ran to her and gave her a big hug. This was more the reaction she expected this morning and she was glad that she got it.

"Hey, buddy. How was your first day of school?" She asked him lifting him up to her hip. He was getting a lot bigger but she was strong enough to carry him for a little while still. For the amount that he ate he was actually pretty small still.

"It was great, Mommy!" he told her excitedly, "Miss Reyes was so nice and she let us color stuff in a read books. Some of the other kids can't read by themselves still so they were just looking at the pictures but I read all the words by myself. Miss Reyes has Wild Things too!"

"Wow, Clarke told him, now that they were in the Elevator heading down to the ground floor she set him down and held his hand instead, "What else happened? Did you meet any new friends?"

"Yeah I did mom, I have a new very best friend Monty. He is so cool! He and his dad put together the entire k'nex roller coaster by themselves. Just like the one at the toy store. Monty was also really really good at building the block towers and knocking them back over. And guess what else!" Jasper continued before he even gave Clarke a chance to guess, "We have a class pet bunny! Bunnies are actually way cooler than snakes, did you know that? Because you can pet bunnies but snakes don't like getting petted. I told Bellamy that but he got mad and said that snakes are better. What do you think?"

"Bunnies are pretty cool," Clarke agreed, and then said, "You know what. I actually met your friend Monty's dad this morning after I dropped you off. I invited them both over for dinner on Thursday."

Jasper turned to her, his eyes wide, "Are you going to be best friends with Monty's dad like I'm best friends with Monty? Because that would be so great."

Clarke actually couldn't believe her luck. That the one kid that Jasper attached himself to at school was Finn's son. She wondered if Finn was having a similar experience at home. Then, realizing how silly and love struck she was acting she shook her head.

"How about we go get pizza to celebrate your first day?" Clarke asked as she buckled Jasper into his seat.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Jasper exclaimed.

"Do you have any homework?" Clarke asked.

"We had to color an about me page. With pictures of our favorite things, but Miss Monroe helped me."

Monroe was one of the daycare attendants and was actually one of Clarke favorite ones of all the people who worked in the daycare because she actually helped the kids with their homework and things like that.

"Alright, you'll have to show that to me when we get home," she told him and then they were off to get pizza.

The next few days passed way quicker than Clarke had expected them too and were very busy for her. Jasper continued to enjoy school just as much as he had before even though they were getting into actually learning things and not just going over procedural things.

Clarke's last surgery actually ended up going over on Thursday and she was running spectacularly late for getting everything ready for Finn and Monty.

Luckily the house was pretty clean since her and Jasper don't actually spend much time there except for the weekends. But there was about a ten minutes before Finn and Monty were suppose to arrive and Clarke hadn't had time to pick up the groceries she was supposed to get after work.

Their current choices for food were craft macaroni and canned corn or speghettios and grilled cheese.

She decided the speghettios and grilled cheese were at least slightly more sophisticated and went with it.

She was turning off the speghettios and putting the last grilled cheese of a plate when the doorbell rang.

Jasper who had been running around the house in excitement ran towards the door, "I'll get it!" he yelled as he ran to the door.

Clarke turned off the other burner and hurried off after Jasper. She got to the front door just as Jasper was opening it.

Clarke was still in a pair of scrubs from work and her hair was in a braid. She probably looked as frazzled as she felt. While Finn was standing in front of her wearing a nice button up shirt and ironed pants. He also was holding flowers. Flowers for goodness sakes.

Lucky for her he just smiled at her as Monty ran past him to greet Jasper enthusiastically. They were already running off to Jasper's room probably so they could make a mess of Jasper's Legos or something.

"Boys!" Clarke called after them before they could get too far, "Dinner is going to be in five minutes to wash your hands and Jasper set the table for us please.

Both boys stopped slightly guilty of rushing off so quickly and went to follow her directions.

"Sorry," Clarke said to Finn, "If I had let Jasper get into whatever he was about to show Monty we wouldn't have gotten them to sit down for another half hour."

"It's okay," Finn said laughing.

Clarke moved out of the way to actually let him in the house, blushing, "I'm also sorry that I'm still in scrubs. And that we're kind of eating speghettios for dinner. And grilled cheese. I swear I usually cook actual dinner, but my last surgery lasted way longer than it was supposed to so we didn't get home until like thirty minutes ago."

"It's okay, really," Finn assured her, "Here these are for you," he handed her the flowers.

"Thanks, they're beautiful," Clarke, told him. And they really were it was a very nice bouquet of fall flowers.

Clarke lead him into the kitchen where she got a vase to put the flowers in and set it on the counter while she did that Finn grabbed the pan of speghettios and served them into the bowls that the boys had set out on the small kitchen table

"I'm assuming the sandwiches cut into triangles are the boy's?" he asked.

Clarke laughed, "Yes, unless you want triangle shaped grilled cheese too?"

"I think I'll manage without," he told her.

"You boys get your hands all washed up?" she asked as Jasper and Monty re entered the kitchen.

The house had a dinning room too, but really they just used that when they had a lot of people over. The house was honestly way too big for just Clarke and Jasper but Clarke wanted a space for when her mother and step dad came to visit and it was actually one of the smallest houses in the area she had wanted to move to.

The two boys where chattering amongst themselves between bites of pasta and grilled cheese. Obviously enjoying each other's company.

"This is maybe the best grilled cheese I've tasted," Finn told her, actually seeming honest about it, "You have to tell me your secret recipe."

Clarke smiled softly, "I use real cheese," she admitted, "Which I actually thing takes away from the charm, part of the experience of eating the grilled cheese my dad made growing up was the processed gooey cheese. But I just can't eat it now. Not being a heath professional, that is."

Finn looked at her, his eyes giving way to a bit of guilt, "I admit that I usually make mine at home with processed cheese. But by the way that Monty is devouring this, I'm probably not going to get away with that for much longer."

Clarke glanced over and Monty had in fact polished off about half of the sandwich in a very short amount of time. Jasper had elected to eat his speghettios first instead.

"He's a boy though," Clarke said, "If he's anything like Jasper he'll eat just about anything you put in front of him."

"That is true," Finn admitted, pouring Monty some more Kool-Aid after he asked for some, "What I really meant is that I don't think I could stomach it anymore."

Clarke laughed at that, she was honestly having more fun right now than she had with someone she didn't work with in a long time.

By this time both of the boys were shoving their bowls away from them, "Can we go play now, mom?" Jasper asked.

"Yeah go ahead, boys," Clarke told them.

They both got up, then as an after thought Monty added, "Dinner was delicious, Miss Griffin."

"Thank you, Monty." Clarke smiled at the boy.

She got up and began to pick up the dishes. Finn got up to help as well."

"Oh you don't have to," Clarke tried to protest.

"Nonsense," Finn said, "Besides, it would be a bit awkward to just sit here and watch you clean up."

Clarke conceded to that. And they continued to do the dishes in a relative silent manner. But it was actually a pretty comfortable silence. Clarke wasn't usually this relaxed in the company of a new person. But there was just something about Finn that made her feel like she had known him for a long time.

Once they finished that they joined the toy boys outside where they were playing some version of two-person tag in the fenced back yard. They had a pool in a separate area than the grassed part the two were playing on and Jasper knew better than to go by it unsupervised even though it was covered at the moment.

Finn rose an eyebrow at it as he and Clarke sat down at the patio table, "You have a very nice house."

Clarke shrugged, "Thanks, we don't actually get to spend much time here with my job and all. But we usually try to stay home as much as possible on the weekends. Does Monty swim?"

"Yeah, he loves it," Finn told her, "He always asks me to bring him to the public pool whenever we have free time."

"Jasper loves it too, we'll have to have you two over again sometime so Monty can swim."

Finn grinned, "Yes, I would like that a lot, but first Monty and I should return the favor and invite you over the Casa de Collins. We can order takeout and the boys can play video games or something. I know Monty has told Jasper about the famous K'nex roller coaster. He's only told me about ten times how excited Jasper is to see it."

"Jasper has told me all about it too, apparently your son is the best at building ever," Clarke told him, looking back over at the boys. They were still running around like crazy.

"He is," Finn said, smiling proudly at his son.

Finn was about to say something else as Jasper ran up and tagged Finn, "Mr. Collins, you're it." Jasper told him.

Clarke was about to tell Jasper that Finn probably didn't want to play before. Finn turned to her, the grin he now had his face made her kind of nervous. She was out of her seat as he lunged to tag her and was running across the lawn as the boys boy giggled uncontrollably.

Finn gave up chase after her and instead turned his sights on the boys. He charged towards Monty and swept him up into his arms swinging him, around, "You're it," he growled playfully, Monty could barely stand he was giggling so hard.

Clarke watched as Finn ran slowly away from his son with a fond smile on her face. It was way too soon to be sure, but she could actually see her family of two expanding to included Finn and Monty sometime in the not so distant future.

And that thought kind of scared her.

_So, lovelies, I hope you enjoy this! I know that Flarke isn't a very popular relationship in this fandom but there seem to be several people who like my AUs so hopefully people will want to read this too! I'm really excited to work on this some more so I think there could be another update in the next week or so. Leave a review to let me know what you think._


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